Damian Priest isn’t just done teaming with R-Truth — he admits the whole experience actually became frustrating for him. After spending years being paired with other people in WWE, Priest says he’s tired of carrying anyone except himself and the championships he plans on winning.
Speaking on Complex Graps, Priest was asked whether his recent change in attitude had anything to do with his partnership with Truth. Priest admitted that Truth was part of the frustration, mainly because another partnership was the exact opposite of where he wanted his career heading.
“Oh, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. But yeah, that time with R-Truth was a little frustrating. It’s just not where I want to be, you know? Like you mentioned, all the titles, but out of all those titles, I’m up to five. Technically, I’ve held the tag titles five times. You know, two Undisputed, plus the SmackDown.”
Priest has already done the tag team thing plenty of times, and he doesn’t need another run to prove he can do it. What bothers him is everything he still hasn’t accomplished as a singles wrestler, especially considering he’s already shown he can carry a world championship.
“I know I can do that, but I’ve also shown that I can do the singles, and I want more of those. There’s no reason why I’m only a one-time world champion. I can do multi-time. I’ve never even had a WWE title shot. I never even faced for the Intercontinental Championship. I can hold the US title again.”
That frustration goes well beyond Truth. Priest looked back at Judgment Day, Rhea Ripley and even Bad Bunny and realized that being attached to somebody else has basically followed him throughout his WWE career. Now he believes all that time helping friends and partners has started getting in the way of what he wants for himself.
“So there’s a lot of stuff that I’d like to accomplish and prove to myself and to everybody else. Like, no, I should be up here. I’m just wasting time helping buddies and friends and having fun. Everybody you mentioned is true, even Bad Bunny. I’ve just always been paired, and sorry to say it this way, I’ve had to carry people, and I don’t want to carry no more. If I’ve got to carry, I want to carry my own bags and with my own titles. How about that? And that’s where I’m at now.”
Priest’s comments about Truth are especially interesting considering how ugly their storyline became last month. Their October 16 SmackDown match was stopped early after Truth was legitimately hurt following an awkward landing from a missile dropkick. Truth later posted a photo from a medical facility and assured everyone he was okay, but naturally couldn’t resist keeping the storyline alive by blaming Priest.
“…On 10/16/2026 I almost passed away… Damien Priest tried to kill me,, I didn’t think he was ThAt serious… But ok, I’ll be back”
Priest fired back during an appearance on Off the Ropes and refused to take the blame. Instead, he joked that Truth was so desperate to beat him that he nearly ended his own life.
“He tried to end his own just to win a match against me. And guys, it explains who he is.”
Now Priest sounds ready to leave the entire partnership behind and get back to singles business. When the Complex Graps hosts asked what he needed to do next to prove he deserves another championship opportunity, Priest wasn’t thrilled with the premise of the question because he doesn’t believe there’s anything left to prove.
“I mean, it’s funny you say, ‘What immediate next step?’ I don’t think I need to prove anything, that I’m ready for anything. I think my stats speak for themselves. And another thing, everything that you’ve mentioned, all my accolades, I haven’t even been on the main roster for six years. I did all that in five years. I accomplished all those championships, all those accolades, all these big moments in five years.”
That confidence also came with a pretty nasty warning for Nick Aldis. Priest says if the SmackDown General Manager doesn’t start giving him the opportunities he believes he deserves, he’ll simply keep taking people out until Aldis gets the message.
“So I don’t think I need to do anything. That’s why I said if Nick Aldis doesn’t make this right, okay, I’ll just start piling bodies in front of his office. I already got two down that aren’t even cleared now. How many more do I need to make examples of before I get what I know belongs to me?”
Priest spent years having somebody beside him, but he’s clearly decided that chapter has run its course. Truth may have been the latest source of frustration, but this is much bigger than one failed partnership — Priest wants to find out how far he can go when the only career he has to worry about is his own.
Do you think Damian Priest is better off completely on his own and chasing singles gold? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
